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Harley MS 5155
- Record Id:
- 040-002050999
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002050999
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000859.0x0002a2
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 5155
- Title:
- Law cases from the reigns of Henry V and Henry VI ('William Fletewood's Commonplace Book')
- Scope & Content:
-
Contents:
ff. 1r-232v: Law cases from the 3rd, 2nd, 4th, 9th and 14th years of the reign of King Henry VI. With contemporary additions on law cases from the reign of 1 Henry V on ff. 52r-54r, 226r-231v; and 'Assis de Annno 8 Henry IV dell duk Deverwyck [York]' on ff. 232r-232v; written in Law French.
The manuscript contains a few additions:
f. i recto: Latin verses: Qui plus expendit quam copia rerum tendit / non admiretur si paupertate gravetur'; added in the 15th or 16th century.
f. ii recto: English verses: 'He that in youte no vartue wil yous / in Age all onner [erasure, which should read: 'him refuse']'; added in the 16th or early 17th century.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Harley Collection
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002050999", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 5155: Law cases from the reigns of Henry V and Henry VI ('William Fletewood's Commonplace Book')" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002050999 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 5155 : Law cases from the reigns of Henry V and Henry VI ('William Fletewood's Commonplace Book') - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[5155]/040-002050999
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Harley MS 1-7661
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
- 1 volume
- Digitised Content:
- Languages:
- English
French, Middle
Latin - Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1475
- End Date:
- 1499
- Date Range:
- 3rd or 4th quarter of the 15th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Paper; parchment (ff. i and ii only).
Dimensions: ff. 1r-73v, 105r-128v, and 130r-232v: 310 x 220 mm (text space: 215 x 135 mm; but 240 x 180 for ff. 226r-231v); ff. 129r-129v: 255 x 190 mm (text space: 215 x 150 mm); ff. 74r-87v: 290 x 200 mm (text space: 215 x 145 mm); ff. 88r-104r: 290 x 210 mm (text space: 205 x 145 mm)
Foliation: ff. 1* + i + ii + 232 (+ 3 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 4 at the end); f. 1* is a paper flyleaf; 1 unfoliated blank paper leaf after f. 1* (f. [1*a]); ff. i and ii are 2 parchment strips that have been pasted on f. 1*a; 1 unfoliated paper strip on f. 1r (lower margin); 2 unfoliated paper stubs between f. 53 and f. 54; 1 unfoliated blank paper leaf between f. 73 and f. 74; 191 and 192; 1 unfoliated paper pastedown on f. [233]verso (conservation notes).
Collation: Indicated by leaf signatures in Roman numbers on the lower right corners; each quire has been mounted separately onto a paper guard.
Script: Gothic cursive.
Binding: British Museum in-house; brown half leather binding with the Harleian arms gold stamped on the outside covers; re-bound in May 1973; the spine of the former binding (red leather with gold-stamped inscriptions: 'Adversaria Juridica Mus. Brit. Bibl. Harl. 5155. 5156 Plut. XLIV. C') pasted on the inside cover; as indicated by this spine inscription, and the Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts (1808), III, p. 249, Harley MS 5155 was bound together with Harley MS 5156 until 1973.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin:
England.
Provenance:
? 'Robert Bygge', perhaps written by him: his surname inscribed on f. 54r: 'Quod Bygge'; and full name on f. 255v: 'Robartus Bygge'.
? An unknown 15th-century owner: their erased ownership inscription on a paper pastedown on f. 1r: '[...] est possessor istius libri', followed by another inscription, perhaps featuring the family name 'Leghe'.
William Fletewood (b. ? 1535, d. 1594) of Middle Temple, Recorder of London 1571, owned the manuscript: his name inscribed on f. 232r: 'William ffletewood' and 'William' (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 153, who records his ownership, but has missed his name inscription on f. 232r; instead he attributes the erased ownership inscription on the paper pastedown on f. 1r to Fletewood).
John Anstis the elder (b. 1669, d. 1744), herald and antiquary, owned the manuscript: according to an inscription by Humfrey Wanley on f. 1r (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 51).
The Harley Collection, formed by Robert Harley (b. 1661, d. 1724), 1st earl of Oxford and Mortimer, politician, and Edward Harley (b. 1689, d. 1741), 2nd earl of Oxford and Mortimer, book collector and patron of the arts, inscribed as usual by their librarian, Humfrey Wanley ‘Mr Anstis A.D. 1719' (f. 1r).
Edward Harley bequeathed the library to his widow, Henrietta Cavendish, née Holles (b. 1694, d. 1755) during her lifetime and thereafter to their daughter, Margaret Cavendish Bentinck (b. 1715, d.1785), duchess of Portland; the manuscripts were sold by the Countess and the Duchess in 1753 to the nation for £10,000 (a fraction of their contemporary value) under the Act of Parliament that also established the British Museum; the Harley manuscripts form one of the foundation collections of the British Library.
- Publications:
-
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), III (1808), p. 249.
Cyril Ernest Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), pp. 51, 153.
Penny Tucker, Law Courts and Lawyers in the City of London, 1300-1550, Cambridge Studies in English Legal History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), p. 400.
John Baker, The Reinvention of Magna Carta 1216-1616, Cambridge Studies in English Legal History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017), p. 219 n. 20.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)
- Places:
- England